"My shoes don't stink!"...this is probably the feedback we get most often (behind the "I get so many people stoppping me to compliment my shoes!) ...hee hee
Wood bark, leaves, fruits, and even root materials used for veg tanning have natural antimicrobial and antibacterial properties to keep the plant healthy. These properties gets transferred to leather as the hides soak in its tanning solution over the course of many weeks during veg tanning.
Most all our leather options are vegetable tanned leather, and we keep our uppers unlined because of leather's natural ability to wick moisture towards the skin side of the material. But beyond that, we make our entire footbed with vegetable tanned leather at 2mm thickness which does wonders keeping bacteria at bay. Finally, our outsoles are also made with veg tan leather, as well as the stacked heels that work wonderfully at shock absorbency.
You can read more on the natural properties of veg tannins here.
(pictured are jars of vegetable extract tannins)